How a warm, wet world became a cold, barren desert
In short: Mars was once potentially habitable, featuring a thicker atmosphere and liquid water. This video explores the dramatic transformation of the Red Planet into its current dusty state through the collapse of its atmosphere.
Billions of years ago, Mars may have possessed conditions similar to Earth's. However, any ancient oceans or seas were likely distinct from our own, potentially formed by thousand-mile long, ice-covered rivers resulting from atmospheric collapse.
Scientists are investigating several processes that contributed to this transition from a warm world with cloudy skies to a dry wasteland. NASA's MAVEN spacecraft is currently providing data to clarify how the planet lost both its atmosphere and its water.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: That one time Mars's atmosphere collapsed
- Also: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | MAVEN: Mars Atmospheric Loss
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